Developing Life Cycle Inventory Data for Science-Based Strawberry

Production Sustainability Metrics

Presenter

Ezra Kahn

USDA- National Agricultural Library

Knowledge Services Division

Principal Investigator: Ganti S. Murthy

Associate Professor, Biological and Ecological Engineering

Oregon State University

The Team

Project Team• Ganti Murthy- PI, OSU• S.M. Hossein Tabatabaie- Graduate Student- OSU• Peter Arbuckle- USDA-NAL• Ezra Kahn- USDA-NAL• Susan McCarthy- USDA NAL• Ashley Loneman- Contract research

Project Advisory Group• Kathy Demchak- Penn State University• Jayson Harper- Penn State University• Dan Legard- California Strawberry Commission• Joyce Cooper- University of Washington

Objectives

Develop “meaningful and constructive metrics for strawberry production sustainability.”

• Develop unit process/life-cycle inventory data for U.S. strawberry production– Demonstrate the use of crop budgets for LCIs

• Propose sustainability metrics

• Peer review results

• Release results publicly through USDA LCA Commons

Project DeliverablesDeliverable Task/Month

Quarterly progress reports Quarterly

Peer reviewed LCA extended crop budgets

Task 3/June

Automated software tool to convert excel-based LCI data from crop budgets to common global LCI format

Task 4/June

Peer reviewed life-cycle inventories made publically available through USDA-NAL LCA Commons.

Task 4/June

Final report with LCA results and sustainability metrics

Task 7/June

Project video and public relations products

TBD

Project Status

• Project results currently in peer review

• Sustainability metrics proposed, work still in progress

• Use peer review to improve methods and results

Peer Review Panel

– Dr. Marvin Pritts (Cornell U., Dept. of Horticulture)– Kathy Demchak (Penn State U.)– Karen Klonsky (UC Davis, Agricultural and Resource Economics)– Dr. Bielinski Santos (U of Florida, Gulf Coast Research and

Education Center)– Dr. Barclay Poling (N. Carolina State U., Department of

Horticulture Science)– Dr. Oleg Daugovish (UC Cooperative Extension Ventura County)– Curt Gaines (UC Davis)– Tom Sjulin (Driscoll Strawberry Associates)– Ted Campbell (Florida Strawberry Growers Association)

Cradle to gate life cycle analysis

California, Florida and North Carolina PlasticultureFunctional Unit: 1 kg ripe strawberry

Cradle to gate life cycle analysisSystem Boundaries

California, Florida and North Carolina PlasticultureFunctional Unit: 1 kg ripe strawberry

LCA results (under review):Impact contribution -- California

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Materials Agricultural Machinery Fertilizers Chemicals Fuels

Project Results:Life Cycle Inventory Data Collection

– LCA Extended Enterprise Budget excel sheet

• Collected primary data from 3 producers

• Published Enterprise budget sheets

Unit Operations Resource Category

Name Remark Name

Field Preparation Only Establishment

year

Prime Movers

Planting Operations Farm Machinery

Analysis/Assessment

All years

Fuels

Cultivation/Weeding Fertilizers

Irrigation Fixed Expenses

Nutrient Application

Only production

years

Pesticides

Harvesting Herbicides

Post-Harvest

operationsInsecticides

Transportation Fungicides

Fixed Expenses

All years

Materials

Labor

Water

Yield

Findings:Life Cycle Inventory Data Collection– LCA Extended Enterprise Budget excel sheet

• Generated LCA unit processes

• Challenges for data collection:– Inflexible to user inputs

– Communicating LCA terminology to Ag Economists

– Inconsistent data among states• Statistical representation vs. expert judgement

• Planning vs. historical representation

– Nursery process not included

– Expertise in LCA and Strawberry production still necessary

Strawberry metrics

• Strawberry Fossil Energy productivity (SFEP) andstrawberry phosphorous productivity (SPP) can bedefines as follow:

Tasks and Timeline

Ezra Kahnezra.kahn@ars.usda.gov

301-504-9831

Q&A